Money, Language, and Thought: Literary and Philosophic Economies from the Medieval to the Modern Era

by Marc Shell

Overview

In Money, Language, and Thought, Marc Shell explores the interactions between linguistic and economic production as they inform discourse from Chretien de Troyes to Heidegger. Close readings of works such as the medieval grail legends, The Merchant of Venice, Goethe's Faust, and Poe's "The Gold Bug" reveal how discourse has responded to the dissociation of symbol from thing characteristic of money, and how the development of increasingly symbolic currencies has involved changes in the meaning of meaning.

Pursuing his investigations into the modern era, Shell points out significant internalization of economic form in Kant, Hegel, and Heidegger. He demonstrates how literature and philosophy have been driven to account self-critically for a "money of the mind" that pervades all discourse, and concludes the book with a discomforting thesis about the cultural and political limits of literature and philosophy in the modern world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801846939
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	09/01/1993
Series:	Softshell Books
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.59(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Marc Shell is professor of comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is the author of The Economy of Literature and Money, Language, and Thought, also available from Johns Hopkins .

Editorial Reviews

Shell offers admirably close readings [which are] often brilliant . . . Summary could do little more than hint at the riches laid open.
—The Eighteenth Century

A remarkable piece of work. Valuable for a wide range of readers from the expert to the inquiring generalist.
—Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher

Shell offers admirably close readings [which are] often brilliant . . . Summary could do little more than hint at the riches laid open.

The Eighteenth Century

A remarkable piece of work. Valuable for a wide range of readers from the expert to the inquiring generalist.

Religious Studies Review

The author explores the interaction between linguistics and economic production as they influence works of literature and philosophy. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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